Authorities plan to launch gradual reopening after lockdown

Turkey will keep a close eye on the course the number of daily cases will take in the days ahead to decide whether to ease anti-virus measures as the country sees a decline in cases amid measures against the coronavirus pandemic.

A gradual reopening will begin if the number of daily COVID-19 cases drops to 10,000 after analyzing the results of the 17-day full lockdown, according to officials.

In line with the normalization plans, the reopening of small businesses and the beginning of face-to-face education are expected, while weddings and condolence ceremonies will continue to be suspended for a while.

For the transition to the normalization period, the number of cases and the rate of spread of the virus on May 14 and May 15 will be decisive for the decisions to be taken after Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan and that is set to take place between May 13 and May 15 this year.

A desired decrease in the number of cases has been experienced, according to the full lockdown evaluations made by the Health Ministry and its relevant units, but this gain may be lost depending on the decisions to be taken after May 17.

For this reason, the authorities stress the importance of gradual reopening, strict control and intensive vaccination.

According to the evaluations, there was a 13 percent drop in deaths and a 3 percent decrease in the number of critically ill patients while the positivity rate of the tests has reached the lowest level of the last three months and decreased below 8 percent.

In Istanbul, home to nearly one-fifth of Turkey's population, there was a weekly decrease of 34 percent in the number of cases, 24 percent in the number of inpatients, and 21...